A Shazam Movie With Dwayne Johnson Is Almost Certainly Happening Sooner Rather Than Later

Thanks to Warner Bros. and DC Comics announcing a slate of nine untitled films that will be coming out between 2016 and 2020, we will be spending the next couple years trying to figure out exactly what their big plan is. It's pretty obvious at a Justice League movie is on the way, and we can probably expect more from Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot has room for a solo movie in her studio contract), but what about the other heroes in the DC canon that have rarely or never had the chance for live-action adaptation? Obviously at this stage we can't point to exactly what the companies have planned, but it's looking ever-more likely that one of the films in the works centers around the mystical hero Shazam.

While we've been hearing rumors about a possible Shazam movie for a couple of months now, it's The Hollywood Reporter that is now throwing some more fuel on the fire. In an editorial about how Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. are scooping up all of the biggest blockbuster release dates between now and 2020, the trade has confirmed through unspecified sources that one of the projects in development at the latter is Shazam. What's more, they add that Dwayne Johnson is attached to star in the movie, though they don't specify the role (it will presumably be the titular superhero. Other projects in the works include the aforementioned Justice League and Wonder Woman projects, but also in the works is Aquaman - which just this week hired a pair of screenwriters to work on competing scripts.

While WB and DC seem to be getting really excited about Shazam (formerly known as Captain Marvel), the reality is that this isn't the first time a live-action feature has been attempted. All the way back in 2006, the companies hired director Peter Segal to try and create a comic book movie for the hero, and at the time Dwayne Johnson was even attached to play the villain, Black Adam. What ended up stopping development, however, was the fact that the character was seen as being too similar to Superman in terms of their respective power sets. It would appear that the the studios are now over this little problem.

If a Shazam movie is actually in the works, then the next big question becomes about when we will actually get to see the finished product. In addition to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is coming out in March 2016, Warner Bros. and DC have one other 2016 date, and then they have two more coming in 2017 (though one is rumored to be the date for Justice League). Can we now expect Shazam to take one of these three slots, or are the studios still just working out their options at this point? Time will tell.